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Thanks for posting. I have one of these, and I’ve also looked at several — yours is the best dial I’ve seen and a great catch.
Another watch Rolex produced for Eaton’s was the Solar Aqua, also Solar Aqua King of Wings. “Solar” was Eaton’s house brand for watches for decades, so there are thousands of Solars, but only a few are Rolex.
One note of caution with the 1/4 Century is that some have been redialed and the Eaton script replaced with “Rolex”. I’ve personally seen one of these.
The 1/4 Century started in the 1920s, with watches that were essentially the Rolex Prince, and were handed out as late as 1971. Eaton’s bought these in bulk and had the engraving done locally, as needed. There was also a women’s version, very hard to find. Apparently women employees hitting the 25 year mark had other options for recognition.
No one seems to know how Eaton persuaded Rolex to make these. As others have noted, there appear to be no other examples of Rolex providing private label watches.
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